What Alec Baldwin Taught My Son About Political Activism

“What do you want your sign to say?” I asked my son. We were walking home from the art supply store with a bag of foam-core board, brushes and tempera paint; the next day we were going to march against President Trump’s policy of separating and detaining undocumented immigrant families, many of whom had crossed the border seeking political asylum.

Jacob didn’t have to think. “I want it to say, ‘Even 8-year-olds are outraged!’”

I encouraged him to use bright colors, big letters. When you make a protest sign, I told him, its message flies out into the world. There may be thousands of people at a rally, and many of them will take pictures. If those pictures are shared, thousands of others may see your sign and hear what you have to say. They might even be inspired to take action themselves.

He made a prototype, then lay on the floor and painted. When he was done, he showed me the sign. “Even 8 year olds are outraged about family separation!” he’d written in capital letters.

How much do we tell our children about what’s going on in our country? When are they capable of becoming political human beings? A few days earlier, knowing we’d be marching together that Saturday, I’d made the decision to tell Jacob that Border Patrol agents, acting on President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, had separated families at the border, sometimes sending kids thousands of miles away from their parents, and that though the initial policy had changed, many of those families still weren’t reunited. I left out the scariest details. But the simplified version was enough. I saw the understanding pass over his face; I saw him feel sad, then angry.

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The author’s son’s message was featured on Alec Baldwin’s Instagram feed.Credit@iamabfalecbaldwin

I was sorry he had to feel that way, and I’m sorry, more than words can express, for what the separated children and parents are going through. But I’m not sorry I told my son what’s going on.

The fact is, I can’t imagine not telling him. We come from a family of refugees. My mother, her sister and their parents fled the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and were granted asylum here. Jacob, the grandchild of an asylum seeker, needs to know why it’s wrong to tear refugee families apart. He needs to know that “zero tolerance” flies in the face of justice and that the Trump administration has been obstructing asylum seekers’ right to a safe haven.

Even if we didn’t have this family history, I would still want him to know. My husband and I want our children to be the kind of people who care about what their president is doing. We want them to understand how lucky we are to be able to march together, when thousands of parents and kids have been forced apart.

So on Saturday, armed with sunscreen, snacks and our signs, we gathered with friends at Foley Square in Manhattan and started walking.

“Hold that sign high,” I told my son. And he did. He shouted “No Hate! No Fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” and “When families are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge as drivers honked their support. When we got to Cadman Plaza, Jacob played in the sprinklers and we ate the peanut butter sandwiches we’d brought. I told him how proud I was that he’d made and carried his sign. And then we went home, and I thought that was it.

The next morning, a friend sent me a text: “Jacob prominently featured on Alec Baldwin’s Instagram.” I thought at first it must be a joke. But when I looked, there was Jacob, his hat pulled down against the sun, holding his bold and legible sign. “The real America,” Mr. Baldwin had written underneath. Almost 13,000 people had liked it.

Jacob doesn’t use a phone or an iPad except for video chats with his grandparents, and I don’t want him ever to live for social media likes. But I did want him to know what his sign had done and how its message had gone out into the world. So I showed him the post and the number beneath it. His eyes grew wide.

“All those people heard your message,” I told him. “Not just the ones we marched with, but thousands of others, too.”

“Who’s Alec Baldwin?”

“An actor. And someone who cares about what you had to say.”

There’s no doubt that social media makes us depressed. There’s no doubt that we look at our phones too much and that the world inside the small screen is no substitute for the real world. But there’s something else social media can do: It can amplify one person’s outrage into a worldwide shout. It can teach a kid not only that you have to speak out to be heard, but also that when you do, your words can have far-reaching effects.

To the Instagram commentators who accused me of brainwashing my son with my own political beliefs: There’s a difference between brainwashing and encouraging a child to consider what’s going on in the world. Sharing your views with your kid forces you to consider what kind of person you are, what kind of person you want your kids to know you are; it forces you to consider, too, what you’re doing to stand up for your beliefs.

And to Alec Baldwin: Thanks for helping me teach my child the power of speaking out.

Julie Orringer is the author of “The Invisible Bridge,” “How to Breathe Underwater” and the forthcoming novel “The Flight Portfolio.”